Study: Increased HIV life expectancy linked to reduction in smoking

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Along with prompt diagnosis, changes in lifestyle can certainly result in similar life expectancy for those with HIV & their HIV negative peers.

Whilst being HIV +ve is a factor when considering reduced life expectancy, smoking is by far the most important lifestyle change that an individual can make to improve their overall health & therefore life expectancy.

With the improvements we have seen in the second generation ARV’s that have made HIV treatment much more tolerable & effective at lower doses I am optimistic that life expectancy for people living with HIV will continue to improve.

One recent study has suggested that older people (50+) living with HIV have a greater life expectancy than their peers because of the close monitoring that occurs for conditions such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, kidney problems & cardio-vascular risk.

Whilst we shouldn’t be complacent about HIV the majority of +ve individuals on successful treat who have live a full & active life.

“The excess mortality rate for HIV-positive current smokers (compared to HIV-positive patients who had never smoked) was 18 per 1000 patient years. The corresponding rate for the HIV-negative controls was 5 per 1000 patient years”.

The effect of smoking combined with HIV infection poses a much greater risk than it does with HIV negative individuals.

Residual HIV replication causes inflammation to occur in many of the body tissues, the significance of this can be seen in the arterial system; low level inflammation combined with the effects of smoking is a considerable risk factor as is the incidence of certain cancers.

Because AIDS is a free radical disease it follows that anything that increases the free radicals in the body will accelerate the progress of the disease. Smokings reputation for causing heart disease and blindness etc. is because it causes the antioxidants in the body to be depleted. If sufficient Vitamin C or other antioxidants are taken they will protect against the extra free radicals produced in the body by smoking.

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